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Mir Kashem Ali: executive committee member of Jamaat-e-Islami |
Dhaka
Bangladesh police yesterday arrested influential Jamaat-e-Islami leader Mir Kashem Ali hours after the International Crimes Tribunal-1 issued a warrant for his arrest on charges of his alleged involvement in crimes against humanity during the 1971 Liberation War.
A team of the Detective Branch of police arrested the Jamaat leader from the office of the vernacular daily Nayadiganta at about 4pm, Detective Branch deputy commissioner of police Mahbub said.
Earlier, at about 2:40pm, the tribunal issued the arrest warrant for war crimes against the Jamaat-e-Islami leader and asked the Dhaka Metropolitan Police commissioner to report on compliance within 24 hours.
Responding to a prosecution petition, the three-member tribunal, headed by Justice M Nizamul Huq, issued the arrest warrant for ‘effective and proper’ investigation into the war crimes case.
The prosecution filed the petition under section 9 (1) of the International Crimes Tribunal rules of procedure that says: “The investigation officer, through the prosecutor, may obtain an warrant of arrest from the tribunal for the arrest of a person at any stage of the investigation, if he can satisfy the tribunal that such arrest is necessary for effective and proper investigation.”
Moving the petition, prosecutor Rana Dasgupta told the tribunal that Mir Quasem, the then Chittagong district head of Al Badr, a secret killing squad of Jamaat-e-Islami, had perpetrated crimes against humanity like killings, looting, abduction, persecution, rape and setting fire on the houses of unarmed civilians during the 1971 Liberation War in collaboration with Pakistan
occupation army.
The war crimes suspect had also set up a makeshift torture camp at a hotel in the port city where the freedom loving people were handed down
punishment.
Considering Jamaat-e-Islami central executive committee member’s present status and the influence he holds in the society as head of Diganta Media Corporation, Mir Quasem might threaten prospective prosecution witnesses and there is apprehension of obstructing investigation process if he is not put behind bars, the prosecutor said.
Mir Quasem is also the chief of Diganta Television and Ibne Sina Hospital in Dhaka. He is also associated with the Islami Bank as one of the major sponsors.
After independence, Mir Quasem had fled to Saudi Arabia and returned after Bangladesh founding president Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and most of his family was massacred on August 15, 1975.
Earlier, the tribunal following a petition moved by the counsel for war crimes accused Delwar Hossain Sayedee adjourned for Wednesday the cross-examination of investigation officer Additional Superintendent of Police M Helal Uddin as the detained accused who suffers from heart ailment for long is undergoing treatment at Ibrahim Cardiac
Hospital.